d overhang half a braccio from
above, so that neither dust nor any other dirt might be able to settle
upon it. But I will not go into the particulars of the invention and
composition of this scene, because so many copies of it, both large
and small, have been printed, that it does not seem necessary to lose
time in describing it. It is enough for us to perceive that the
intention of this extraordinary man has been to refuse to paint
anything but the human body in its best proportioned and most perfect
forms and in the greatest variety of attitudes, and not this only, but
likewise the play of the passions and contentments of the soul, being
satisfied with justifying himself in that field in which he was
superior to all his fellow-craftsmen, and to lay open the way of the
grand manner in the painting of nudes, and his great knowledge in the
difficulties of design; and, finally, he opened out the way to
facility in this art in its principal province, which is the human
body, and, attending to this single object, he left on one side the
charms of colouring and the caprices and new fantasies of certain
minute and delicate refinements which many other painters, perhaps not
without some show of reason, have not entirely neglected. For some,
not so well grounded in design, have sought with variety of tints and
shades of colouring, with various new and bizarre inventions, and,
in short, with the other method, to win themselves a place among the
first masters; but Michelagnolo, standing always firmly rooted in his
profound knowledge of art, has shown to those who know enough how they
should attain to perfection.

But to return to the story: Michelagnolo had already carried to
completion more than three-fourths of the work, when Pope Paul went to
see it. And Messer Biagio da Cesena, the master of ceremonies, a
person of great propriety, who was in the chapel with the Pope, being
asked what he thought of it, said that it was a very disgraceful thing
to have made in so honourable a place all those nude figures showing
their nakedness so shamelessly, and that it was a work not for the
chapel of a Pope, but for a bagnio or tavern. Michelagnolo was
displeased at this, and, wishing to revenge himself, as soon as Biagio
had departed he portrayed him from life, without having him before his
eyes at all, in the figure of Minos with a great serpent twisted round
the legs, among a heap of Devils in Hell; nor was Messer Biagio's
pleading wit